Hapoel TA stays perfect

Hapoel Tel Aviv made it two wins out of two in the Premier League, comfortably beating Hapoel Haifa 2-0.

Hapoel Tel Aviv made it two wins out of two in the Premier League on Sunday
night, comfortably beating Hapoel Haifa 2-0 at Bloomfield Stadium.

Tel
Aviv was far from convincing, but it showed an improvement from last week’s 1-0
victory over Hapoel Ramat Gan and goals from Hanan Maman (26) and Omer Damari
(60) clinched all three points.

Maman netted the opener with a super
finish after a delightful assist by Bruno and Damari secured the win from the
penalty spot after being brought down in the box by Fabian
Stoller.

Sunday was also a busy day for Tel Aviv off the field, with the
club bringing back Gili Vermut and signing defenders Tomer Ben-Yosef and Serbian
Nikola Petkovic.

Vermut was one of the stars of the Hapoel team which won
the Premier League and State Cup double in the 2009/10 season and helped the
club to the Champions League group stage the following campaign.

The
27-year-old moved to German club Kaiserslautern last summer, but never settled
in the Bundesliga, and spent half of last season on-loan at Dutch side De
Graafschap.

Hapoel owner Haim Ramon sealed the deal after a meeting with
Kaiserslautern officials on Sunday and Vermut signed a five-year contract with
the Reds.

Ben-Yosef has spent the past seven seasons at Betar Jerusalem,
but injuries limited his role in recent years and he will have plenty to prove
in Tel Aviv.

“I’m happy to be back home. I can’t wait to get started,”
said Vermut.

Elsewhere, Nissan Yehezkel became the first coaching
casualty of the season, being sacked by Hapoel Ramat Hasharon just two matches
into the season.

Ramat Hasharon claimed a 3-1 win over Hapoel Acre on
Saturday, but Yehezkel was fired on Sunday after the club claimed that he had
signed an additional contract under the table with former chairman Meir Itzhaki.